Listed rural servicing company PGG Wrightson yesterday gave the strongest hint yet it was unlikely to complete its partnership with Dunedin meat co-operative Silver Fern Farms as proposed.
This week is is set to be crucial for the future of the stalled partnership between rural servicing company PGG Wrightson and Dunedin meat co-operative Silver Fern Farms.
Auckland-based Mercury Energy this week entered the Dunedin electricity market, securing its first customer three minutes after its marketing started.
Southern businesses are questioning the reliability of electricity supply, with virtually all who replied to a survey saying those worries could affect future operations.
Over the past week, there has been some good news in the marketplace. In particular, the Reserve Bank has reduced the official cash rate (OCR) by 1% to 6.5%.
The international financial upheaval caught up with wool markets last week, with 90% of the offering at some Australian merino wool auctions being passed in.
All the planets appear to have lined up nicely for Railside Farm in North Otago.
The Government was the biggest buyer of high country land and its involvement was driving up pastoral lease rents for farmers, says a farming leader.
Sheep farmers have paid about $1 million to buy back the Wools of New Zealand group of companies lost with the demise in 2003 of the Wool Board.
The Government is driving up the price of high-country land by paying above market rates for whole property purchases as it fulfills its conservation and high country park goals.
Political interference in the valuing of high-country pastoral lease land to force lessees into tenure review, was alleged at the Land Valuation Tribunal sitting in Dunedin yesterday.
Blis Technologies says it has taken one of the most significant steps in its history with the signing yesterday of a global distribution agreement with international ingredients company Frutarom Ltd.
Reports from the Otago hospitality sector of lighter-than-usual bookings for Christmas functions support a September survey indicating a weakening in the country's services sector.
Listed South Island companies have succumbed to the international financial upheaval, with an index measuring their capitalisation easing in the September quarter.
Otago businesses are being urged to take advantage of historic links with China and promote their wares at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.
The Alliance Group has doubled its North Island sheep processing capacity with the purchase of a lamb, sheep and beef processing plant Levin Meats.
Silver Fern Farms is pushing on with changes to its business model despite being unable to complete its partnership with PGG Wrightson, and yesterday announced a new procurement system.
The New Zealand wool industry is mourning the death of Australian sector leader Michael Lempriere, who died after a car accident in the Mackenzie Basin earlier this month.
Livestock farmers are flocking back to the cropping industry, lured by soaring grain prices but also as a rotation to renew pasture damaged by drought.
The chill winds of the global financial downturn buffeted last week's sale of merino wool in Melbourne.
